RSC's Jacobean play has the X factor

The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is to stage a play that it is thought has not been performed since it was written 400 years ago.

It was chosen in an X Factor-style vote in which four academics were each invited to champion a play. The winner was Love Sacrifice by John Ford and it was pitched by Martin White, emeritus professor of theatre at Bristol University.

The RSC's artistic director, Gregory Doran, told the Today programme that Love Sacrifice "is a really terrific play and it has fantastic echoes of Othello".